Question

You are the Chief Information Officer for General Manufacturing Incorporated. They are the leading supplier of plastic containers for consumer and commercial use. Fifteen years ago, they went live with an ERP system. Since that time, they have outgrown the system and it has become clear that they need a new one. Additionally, they have not sold their products directly to the public online but provided them to other industry users or to retail chains. They want to change so they will sell directly to consumers online.

During your career, you have risen through the ranks in IT, so you are aware of everything that needs to take place within your department. You have been tasked with making this ERP project happen. This means that your people will need to choose a new system that meets your organization’s needs, oversee its implementation and make sure it runs properly afterwards. For each question that you answer, consider the direction that the company wishes to take.

1. Describe how you would decide upon the ERP system that you will purchase and what will happen within the company prior to purchasing it (in determining needs and making the decision).
2. Once you start to sell your products online to consumers, you want to have a greater web presence. At this point in time, you are not considering privacy and security. What do you need to consider and what would you recommend?
3. There are issues that relate to privacy and security that will arise with your move to make more use of the web. Discuss the issues and how you would recommend that they be addressed.

Answer 1

Planning and Implementing an ERP System in todays synamic business world can ensure operational efficiancy withing the company as well as can bring values to its suppliers and customers when the company is trying to reach directly to the customers with online business,

A robust ERP system can provide quick, simple but reliable solution to the business. An ERP system is like brain of the company and functions as command centre withing the organsition.In order to purchase the new ERP system we would consider following-

1) Organisation Objective and alliagnment of it with the business need- Any system including ERP solutions should be planned and implemented in such a way so that it is well aligned with the business goal and objectives of the company. This will ensure in smooth implementation of the ERP with organisation and allign well key elements of business ie People , Process and Technology.

2) Reliable Business Informations- An ERP System collects the information from different departments like Inventory management, Sales, Purchase, account, process and make them available for the business use.The single database enables easy accessibility to the data and helps companies plan better to face the competition, change in demands, and other unexpected disruptions. Again, a better planning means stronger control which advances businesses towards generating more profit.

3) Better Inventory Management- Inventory is crucial for any business because this gets converted into the products and generate revenues . Having control over it enables us to stock enough to meet anticipated orders while removing excesses. An ERP software should addresses this challenge very comprehensively. The system should stores detailed information about each and every product available in stock to ensure users know exactly what items are stored in the inventory and what needs to be re-stocked. Also, the ERP tool should helps in demand forecast by analyzing customer’s buying trends in the past, thus enabling the managers/staffs to modify the inventory to meet the upcoming demands.

4) Omni Channel decision- As described here in the case that the comany for last 15 years or operates in B2 B envioronment and now with this new system intends to do B2 C as well. So, We would need multiple channels functioning simultaneously in order to ensure all operations run smoothly in their establishment. An ERP system should integrates all these channels into a unified platform, allowing departments to share information in real time. No longer would one department need to notify another every time there is an update. Employees get access to the data whenever they need. The modern solution benefits businesses with more effective communication.

5) Improve Operational Eficiency within the Organisation- The New ERP system should allows businesses to capture, store, and manage information through an automated system in order to organize and simplify the day-to-day operations and reduce the tedious manual efforts in doing those repetitive activities. The solution helps companies increase efficiency to ensures targets are met on time, thereby saving operational costs.

6) Smooth integration and automation of Sales & Payment Recording-POS systems automatically record sales transaction details, thus eliminating extra effort and scope of human errors that occur when the task is done manually.The ERP software should have capability to integrated with the POS tool, billing customer records to make the sales transactions faster and easier. With the help of the solution, retailers can reduce customers’ time for hassle free purchase billing. Along with this, the system should also provides real-time data. All the transactions are immediately reflected in the central ERP, which enables management to oversee the business happening in different retail outlets.

7) Integrated Customers Relationship Management ( CRM)- Customers are crucial for any  business, Keeping a close relationship with them and improving their experience online help us retain them. An ERP system enabled with customer management tool should helps the busness to handle and overcome challenges related to gaining and retention of customers better.As mentioned earlier, an ERP system should captures all the pertinent information, including customers purchase history. This data can be used to analyze shoppers buying trends, which would allow you to create deals catering to their needs and provide them with a truly personalized shopping experience.

8) Offers and Discount Management- Integration of m coupons/e coupons-The nature of B2C business demands a dynamic pricing system and integrate price discounts time to time. However, keeping track of this manually is quite a tedious task. For this, we would need a robust ERP solution that can automate the process of recording the price of products along with discounts available on them, thus making the process simple and effortless.

It would not be wrong to say that using an ERP system is inevitable to sustain the fierce competition in dynamic business especially loaded with informations on products customers. The application includes features that can improve the operational capabilities of a retail business, bringing an edge over the competitors.